Frank Gardner Hutchinson

FLORENCE, Aug. 12.--(AP)--Frank G. Hutchinson, confessed murderer who chose death in the desert to life in the state penitentiary, will be buried beside his mother in the Florence cemetery tomorrow.

Hutchinson, who was sentenced to life imprisonment 11 years ago after he pleaded guilty to killing his wife by setting off five sticks of dynamite beneath her bed, was found dead in a sandy wash, two miles from the prison yesterday.

He had walked away from the prison Saturday, carrying with him a quantity of cyanide, some water and his prison tin cup.

Warden A. G. Walker said Hutchinson apparently mixed the deadly potion and drank it. The warden denied the cyanide was stolen from the prison's lethal gas death chamber. The poison taken by Hutchinson, he said, probably was some used at the prison to kill ants, for the prisoner did not have access to the death house.

In the little hut he occupied outside the prison walls, Hutchinson, a trusty for nine years, left a note for Alva Weaver, prison secretary.

The note said: "I have had this in mind for some time. I can see I'm not going to get any justice. The parole board wouldn't believe my story."

Last June Hutchinson appeared before the board and pleaded for a pardon, but it was denied.

He was head carpenter at the prison and was credited by Warden Walker with constructing buildings of the now abandoned girls' industrial school at Randolph.

His wife was killed by a dynamite blast April 14, 1924, at Superior. Hutchinson reported to authorities that prowlers had been near his home at the time of the explosion, but a few days later he was arrested on a murder complaint signed by his stepson, and subsequently he declared he was responsible for his wife's death.

Note:
These obituaries are transcribed as published and are submitted by volunteers who have no connection to the families.
They do not write the obituaries and have no further information other than what is posted within the obituaries.
We do not do personal research. For this you would have to find a volunteer who does this or hire a professional researcher.